Better Bitter Gourd
Growing new markets with better bitter gourd genetics: WorldVeg’s monoecious, gynoecious and predominantly female lines of different market segments developed through recurrent selection to breed breakthrough hybirds
Start date: 1 February 2023
End date: 31 January 2025
Project manager: Narinder Dhillon
Jointly funded by 35 private seed companies, this program ‘Growing new markets with better bitter gourd genetics’ will run in Thailand until January 2025. Bitter gourd abounds in phytonutrients and is an important commercial cash crop cultivated by smallholder farmers in Asia. The current value of the bitter gourd seed market in Asia is €16 million annually. The project addresses the problem of narrow bitter gourd genetic resources used in commercial breeding. It will develop and make available genetically broad-based bitter gourd lines (developed through a recurrent selection program initiated at WorldVeg 10 years ago) that are high yielding, and have good horticultural traits, and possess resistance to specific diseases. The performance of the F1 hybrids will be assessed in multi-environment trials in India and Pakistan.
